That sea whereof I spoke as coming so near the mountains is called the Sea of GHEL or GHELAN, and extends about 700 miles.[NOTE 7] It is twelve days’ journey distant from any other sea, and into it flows the great River Euphrates and many others, whilst it is surrounded by mountains.  Of late the merchants of Genoa have begun to navigate this sea, carrying ships across and launching them thereon.  It is from the country on this sea also that the silk called Ghelle is brought.[NOTE 8] [The said sea produces quantities of fish, especially sturgeon, at the river-mouths salmon, and other big kinds of fish.][NOTE 9]

NOTE 1.—­Ramusio has:  “One part of the said province is subject to the Tartar, and the other part, owing to its fortresses, remains subject to the King David.”  We give an illustration of one of these mediaeval Georgian fortresses, from a curious collection of MS. notices and drawings of Georgian subjects in the Municipal Library at Palermo, executed by a certain P. Cristoforo di Castelli of that city, who was a Theatine missionary in Georgia, in the first half of the 17th century.

The G. T. says the King was always called David.  The Georgian Kings of the family of Bagratidae claimed descent from King David through a prince Shampath, said to have been sent north by Nebuchadnezzar; a descent which was usually asserted in their public documents.  Timur in his Institutes mentions a suit of armour given him by the King of Georgia as forged by the hand of the Psalmist King.  David is a very frequent name in their royal lists. [The dynasty of the Bagratidae, which was founded in 786 by Ashod, and lasted until the annexation of Georgia by Russia on the 18th January, 1801, had nine reigning princes named David.  During the second half of the 12th century the princes were:  Dawith (David) IV.  Narin (1247-1259), Dawith V. (1243-1272), Dimitri II.  Thawdadebuli (1272-1289), Wakhtang II. (1289-1292), Dawith VI. (1292-1308).—­H.  C.] There were two princes of that name, David, who shared Georgia between them under the decision of the Great Kaan in 1246, and one of them, who survived to 1269, is probably meant here.  The name of David was borne by the last titular King of Georgia, who ceded his rights to Russia in 1801.  It is probable, however, as Marsden has suggested, that the statement about the King always being called David arose in part out of some confusion with the title of Dadian, which, according to Chardin (and also to P. di Castelli), was always assumed by the Princes of Mingrelia, or Colchis as the latter calls it.  Chardin refers this title to the Persian Dad, “equity.”  To a portrait of “Alexander, King of Iberia,” or Georgia Proper, Castelli attaches the following inscription, giving apparently his official style:  “With the sceptre of David, Crowned by Heaven, First King of the Orient and of the World, King of Israel,” adding, “They say that he has on his shoulder a small mark of a cross, ’Factus est principatus super humerum ejus,’ and they add that he has all his ribs in one piece, and not divided.”  In another place he notes that when attending the King in illness his curiosity moved him strongly to ask if these things were true, but he thought better of it! (Khanikoff; Jour.  As. IX. 370, XI. 291, etc.; Tim.  Instit. p. 143; Castelli MSS.)